The Ethnic Market: Learning the Facts and how they relate to Direct Marketing

Age : 45 Joined : 08 Mar 2008 Posts : 1850

There is a considerable amount of excitement surrounding the benefits of ethnic marketing but two questions remain: How do you translate your consumer strategy into customized messages that resonate with diverse consumers and, how do you get started? With over 200 ethnicities in Canada, ethnic marketing is not just a passing fad – soon it will be a necessity for companies to remain competitive. Statistics Canada reports that over 70% of all population growth in Canada comes from immigration and by 2017; one in five Canadians will be a visible minority1.

Statistics Canada defines ethnicity as a distinct group recognized by common cultural, linguistic, religious, behavioural or biological traits2. It is critical in the changing demographic landscape of Canada that marketers target the larger minority ethnic groups by “gaining a deeper insight into cultural differences that affect how they relate to mainstream media and marketing communications.3” Canadians cannot be targeted to as one large homogenous group – rather direct marketers should seek out homogenous groups within our heterogeneous society.

The Facts:
Immigrants will account for 22.2% of the entire Canadian population by 20174
African Canadians, Asians, Hispanics and Italians represent 12% of the population
Canada is tracking to be 100% dependant on immigration for growth (2006 Census)
The Canadian fertility rate is 1.5 children per woman, far below the 2.1 needed to replace the dying population (baby boomers)
Over 50% of Vancouver and Toronto’s population will be made up of visible minorities by 20175
Source: Cornucopia – Association of Ethnically Diverse Marketing & Communications Professionals
The ethnic market in Canada is a wealthy one with a combined spending power of over $48 billion. The majority of all visible minorities live in Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal.6 Based on these drivers it is clear that there is a considerable opportunity for growth. Ethnic marketing can no longer be considered a niche market in an organization’s segmentation strategy.

To gain further insight into how Canadian companies are responding to this new and growing market we spoke with three Canadian-based organizations. M&M Meat Shops, Hbc, and United Way of Greater Toronto have created marketing campaigns specific to ethnic audiences. This article illustrates how they each got started, what their implementation strategies were, and what they learned from the process.

Getting Started
Michelle Lewis, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Analyst at M&M Meat Shops, says they were motivated to begin a multicultural program because of the substantial demographic shift around many of their Greater Toronto Area stores. Lewis said that, “Over the last decade or so, the trade areas for many of our stores had evolved into multicultural neighbourhoods and we realized we needed to attract these families as customers.”

In September 2006, after careful research and planning, M&M Meat Shops began advertising to the South Asian market. Though the Chinese market is extremely large in the GTA, M&M Meat Shops chose to begin their multicultural marketing efforts focused solely on the South Asian market. The first 2 phases of the project ran September to December 2006 and again from March to July 2007.

During both phases, print ads were placed in the CanIndia News. The initial goal of the first phase of ads was to educate the South Asian community about M&M Meat Shops. In Phase Two, the ads moved away from informing consumers about the M&M concept and product line and were designed to simply attract new South Asian customers into the store.

"Each ad featured 5 to 6 of our products and was distributed to co-ordinate with our regular M&M Meat Shops flyer to increase the ad’s longevity. All the ads were full page and in colour."

Radio ads ran on CMR, Canadian Multicultural Radio. The ads were 30 second commercials with a South Asian announcer. They stressed ‘over 40 M&M Meat Shops stores in the GTA’, spoke of the variety of products carried and gave the website address. In the background there is subtle South Asian-influenced music being played as the announcer is speaking.

M&M Meat Shops researched the South Asian market through a variety of means. “We use demographic software in-house that allows us to see where the different cultures exist in and around our stores. We gained further information from staff who are South Asian and who helped direct the ads, both radio and print. We also read as much as we could on the South Asian market.” Michelle Lewis stresses, “It’s important to realize that you need to do a lot of research and learn during this phase. Unless you have been raised in an Indian or Pakistani etc. household, you probably won’t have much insight into their culture.”

Hbc was also motivated to meet the needs of ethnic audiences by having each store reflect the needs and desires of the local community, while continuing to offer the brands and value already associated with Zellers and the Bay. “Hbc customers and sales associates told us they wanted to see more products that appeal to various ethnic communities across the country, so we’re testing a variety of products at various stores,” says Marie-Josée LeBlond, Director, Program Marketing and Communications at Hbc.

Hbc has targeted Asian communities, Jewish communities and East Indian communities in various locations across the country since 2006. “We focused on areas where our customers had requested certain programs or products and where we knew we had customers of a particular ethnic background shopping in our stores.”

Hbc gained information on the ethnic audiences they were targeting through associates and customers who had given them feedback on the types of programs and products they wanted to see in Hbc stores.

United Way of Greater Toronto aims to reach as many ethnic audiences as possible but spends extra time on the Chinese, South Asian and African-Caribbean markets. Zenia Wadhwani, Director of New Markets at United Way of Greater Toronto says, “These communities are engaged for several reasons including: size of population in Toronto, historical relationships, income earnings and research.”

Taking Action
To increase relevance and attract ethnic markets a variety of visual, language and ethnic-specific media were used by each of the three organizations. A number of the traditional marketing tactics have been leveraged to convey messages.

These include:

Marketing levers Media/Channel
Print ads CanIndia News
Radio Canadian Multicultural Radio (CMR)
ROP/FSI Local newspapers
In-store promotions & signage
Special Events
Peer to peer events

In order to meet the expectations of the ethnic segment/community Hbc formed a committee made up of store associates, managers, regional VPs, marketing and advertising from across the country that focuses on localization. This committee meets monthly to discuss the progress and ongoing opportunities in the various markets. Customers and sales associates both said they wanted to see more products that would appeal to the South Asian communities in Brampton and Bramalea. As a result, a variety of products in the food and entertainment categories are being tested. “We want our customers to help inform us about what they would like to see in our stores,” said Rob Johnston, President Hbc.

Hbc has also added additional associates who speak languages that are relevant to the various communities as requested by the customers. The entrance of each store now includes special signage that states the various languages that store associates speak in that particular store, as well as special customer questionnaires in order to solicit feedback about which products and services customers are most interested in. The associates are identified by the country flag that appears on their name badge so they can be easily identified. This program has already resulted in positive customer response which benefits both tourists and local ethnic customers.

From an integration point of view it all happens out of the same marketing department that again, is comprised of associates from across the country. Some stores are used for testing new ideas and as the pilot programs become successful, they may be rolled out to other local markets where these communities reside.

United Way found that the most attractive methods to reach their markets were special events and leveraging languages spoken by staff. They were able to gain insights from media sources and translators all contributing to greater cultural competence and knowledge.

Zenia Wadhwani told us that in the recent past at United Way of Greater Toronto, these efforts have not been as connected to other marketing activities as they would like. “We are moving to a much more integrated model but the process has been slow so as to ensure we are doing it correctly and not offending anyone in the process. We do have a dedicated unit that works on segmented markets but it includes youth markets as well as ethnic ones. This unit has 5 people but is currently under review for restructuring and will likely result in a more integrated team.”

Learnings
Targeting ethnic audiences has generated success for M&M Meat Shops, Hbc, and United Way. But every organization has a different measure of success.

M&M Meat Shops believes their ethnic marketing efforts have been successful as they have seen an increase in South Asian customers. “We have a loyalty card program and we can measure how many new customer sign-ups we have over a given time frame. We took the database of new customers during the two separate phases of the program and profiled them. The clusters that were the largest for our new customer sign-ups were those with an Indian or South Asian ethnicity.”

“The goal for the multicultural project is to create awareness and build a relationship with these new customers. It’s great that they have an M&M Meat Shops Max card but the goal is to become a staple in their life. Our hope is that the one initial visit will evolve in many future visits. In that regard, our objectives are the same as any new customer, regardless of their ethnicity.” summarized Michelle Lewis.

The United Way of Greater Toronto has been quite successful in their ethnic marketing efforts. “We have a solid reputation in many ethnic communities and a constant stream of individuals from various communities wishing to engage with us. We raise money from these communities and have good presence at events, as well as good feedback on our marketing materials.” says Zenia Wadhwani.

She continues by stating, “Some of the measures are the same, as are some of the objectives, however, there are differences based on the level of engagement we are working at with each community. In some cases for example, awareness is more important than fundraising”.